CP expedition to Yamato - 06/2004 - Part 1

Writer: Sebastián Vieira
Photography: Sebatián Vieira

At the end of June 2004 I went to Yamato, an ecotourism place located at the shores of the Meta river, one of the big rivers that flow into the Orinoco. This place is midway between the Orinoco river and the Andes, very near the point known as the Colombian belly button, where the lines dividing the Colombian map in 4 equal parts meet together. The land and vegetation here is very similar to the "Gran Sabana" in Venezuela but lacks the rock formations of the Guyana Shield. Most of the land is covered with grasslands and there are lots of small water streams covered by gallery forests. The part of the grasslands to the south of the Meta river and where Yamato is located, is known as the "Altillanura", this means this part of the land is higher from the rest of the grasslands and does not get flooded during the wet season like the rest. Only some parts get flooded and some seasonal water bodies are formed.

There were three different CP habitats I was able to find there and I am going to give a short description of each habitat and show those species of CPs I did find in each one.

The first habitat I visited was in an abandoned artificial lake previously used for fish culture. It remains partially filled and the exposed parts of what was the sandy lake bottom are constantly wet with some parts covered by a thin layer of water and the other parts consisting wet sands. It is exposed to full sun and has a nice variety of vegetation, inluding some species of Utricularia. The soil is mainly very fine sand of a light orange color.

A view of this first habitat, the semi empty lake.

Some of the nice plants i found in this habitat.

The most spread species in this habitat is the small and yellow Utricularia pusilla. It grows almost anywhere in this habitat, and its leaves are easy to find covering the ground with lots of flower scapes ending in small yellow flowers.

The small flower of U.pusilla	The leaves of U.pusilla covered by a thin water layer.	Side view of the flower of U.pusilla.
U.pusilla flowers	More U.pusilla flowers.	Front view of U.pusilla

More conspicuous but less abundant in this habitat, was U.triloba, another yellow utric with taller scapes and bigger and showier flowers.

Front view of U.triloba flower.	U.triloba flowers.	Flower with aberrant four pointed spur.	U.triloba flower.
Another variation of U.triloba.	Side view of U.triloba.	More U.triloba.	U.triloba in its natural habitat.

The last species I found here was a tiny white flowered Utric growing near one drier edge of this habitat and occupying only an area of about two square meters. I first thought it was a white U.pusilla because the flowers are very similar and I could not see any leaves, but later conversations with expert Fernando Rivadavia gave it a name I never thought. I am talking about a small white form of the very variable U.amethystina.

Then, there is the last species I found here but with no flowers. The ubiquitous U.gibba was floating on very shallow water.

Go on to Part 2 for more interesting species.